Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Blogger's Quilt Festival Love

Hello All!
I am excited to post in another finished piece in this fall's Blogger's Quilt Festival.

This is my first attempt at a mini quilt and I think I might have a new little addiction.

I am calling this mini: Junctions.

It's made with 21 different shot cotton colors, a neutral gray background and a simple black back/binding. I wanted the colors give the appearance of crossing over and under each other. I hoped it resembled the blended look that shot cottons provide up close when the different colors meet.

I also used 8 different color threads to highlight the rainbow of colors used to intersect each other. I used 6 colored bobbins for the main lines and a black bobbin for the grid work design that fills the negative space on the front. (Hip hip hooray for Aurifil!)

Here's how it was made:

I drew a design with a pencil, a ruler, and freezer paper. Then once I liked the way they crossed, I made it permanent with a marker. (I also made a copy, just in case I messed something up.)

I pulled out my shot cotton collection to decide which colors would be placed where and used markers to represent each color. Post it notes saved the day and kept me pretty organized.

Next comes part when you have to decide how to cut out the paper into strips that can be used to paper piece my design.

My new best quilting friend: the Add-A-Quarter ruler!

I really like the colors on this strip just by itself.

Putting the strips back together now.

Slowly getting there.

The struggle was real to make these line up.(I made peace with my seam ripper.)

Now the part most paper piecers love: ripping the paper off of the back.
(Stress relief after a long day!)

Quilting Time!

Made good use of my washi tape.
(Thanks Stashbee Hive mate!)

Quilting Complete!

Put a black binding on it because I can!

Rainbow binder clips for binding.
And *gasp*...

I finished the binding by hand!

Those of you who know me well, know that binding my hand is not something I prefer to do. Since this one was so tiny and cute, I decided to make her pretty by finishing her the right way.

Here she is all dolled up and ready for her debut at the Blogger's Quilt Festival:

Junctions

(Close up of the woven shot cotton colors.)

The back is pretty fun, too.

This mini quilt measures 16.5 by 20.5. It was made with various shot cottons and quilted using various Aurifil colored threads.

I already have some ideas for my next project and am thrilled that I still have a lot of shot cotton colors to use! Stay tuned.